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Eunoia
Eunoia is a privately-operated medical and evacuation vessel, based on the Terminus colony of Serifia. Early History Eunoia was launched in 2149 CE, having been virtually reconstructed from its original form - a decommissioned Voyager-B class colony support vessel - in Serifia's Temple Sound orbital shipyards. The refit, which effectively turned the ship into a unique new class, was commissioned by Torch of Salvation, formerly the medical support division of Serifia's Valiance TR private military company. Having been made an independent company in a corporate reshuffle, the launch of Eunoia represented Torch of Salvation's bid to secure a profitable slice of the medical services market and expand beyond the standing contract it retained with Valiance. Although the project initially showed only modest profits, Torch persisted in operating Eunoia alongside its more conventional small-scale medical and relief teams for hire, and were rewarded when Serifia's government offered the group a partnership. Seeing the potential for Eunoia to represent Serifia to its neighbours - and trading partners further afield - as being a cut above the general Terminus image of corruption and venal self-interest, the administration provided funds and brokered deals with other Serifian corporations which amounted to a significant subsidy of the vessel's operating costs; Torch of Salvation took the opportunity to partition its divisions, making Eunoia an independent operation, though Torch retained a controlling interest of its shares. Now able to offer her services at a dramatic discount, Eunoia managed to turn a tidy profit for its stockholders year after year, while also preserving a semi-charitable public image. Overhaul In 2178 the owners of Eunoia reinvested their profits in a full overhaul of the vessel, ensuring she remained on the leading edge of medical technology in the Terminus Systems. The refit also made a number of structural alterations to the vessel, based on recommendations from her current and former officers, most notably a significant expansion of its small craft carrying capacity. In her current form, Eunoia carries a crew of 87, including 43 doctors and medical staff, and 18 pilots and search and rescue specialists. Her original Voyager-B spaceframe is barely recognisable underneath her massive forward docking bays, central hospital section, and the twin oversize power plants that provide masses of redundant life support capacity. She carries ten shuttles - eight ready to fly in her hangars, with two more "mothballed" in storage on her outer hull, ready to be brought to ready status by her engineering crew if necessary - and can configure her small craft for rapid extraction/search and rescue, or deploying a modular field hospital on planetary surfaces. Her medical staff are among the finest in the region - among the Terminus medical establishment, it has become something of a status symbol for practitioners to have served a term on the Eunoia, leading to there being no shortage of qualified applicants for vacancies on her crew. Although she mounts powerful barriers and GARDIAN point defence clusters, Eunoia is by no stretch of the imagination a combat vessel - her operators are willing to lend her services to military operations, but she does not deploy to hot combat zones, and even when hired to provide medical aid in rear echelon positions her operators will insist on escort vessels being provided for her. Nonetheless, her best defence - besides caution - is her status: most military groups in the Terminus recognise that any short-term gain from attacking the vessel would be overwhelmingly offset by being unable to call on her services in the future, not to mention the unappealing prospect of earning the pointed ire of their competitors, who likewise far prefer Eunoia to be available should they need her. Even pirates and outlaws have been known to look elsewhere rather than contemplate an attack on her - besides the difficulty involved, even the most ruthless of them still needs quasi-legal collaborators to buy the cargoes they steal, and even the most habitually corrupt and morally apathetic system governments and corporate administrations would be very displeased to be denied one of the region's few genuinely reliable low-cost emergency lifelines. Recent History At the start of the Reaper War Eunoia was planetside on Illium, following a mission funded by a coalition of charitable groups led by the Illium Intimate Services Sisterhood to transport and treat refugees fleeing the Cerberus takeover of Omega. When the Reapers lay siege to Illium Eunoia remained grounded in Nos Varda, her core forming the basis of an emergency hospital while her detachable modules were moved to other areas of the city to bolster clinics and first aid centres. Following the war relations between Illium and Serifia became strained over Eunoia, with the ship's Serifian backers claiming it had been prevented from departing Illium while it was still safe to do so, under the guise of 'safety measures', in order to have its resources available for Illium in the event of invasion. Negotiations for the relaunch of the vessel took some time, but almost a year after the war's end Eunoia - including a number of crew drawn from Illium's medical establishment, as part of the final agreement negotiated between Serifia and Illium's Health Directorate, now a partner in the vessel's operations - was relaunched, and resumed her general activities in the Terminus. Category:Technology Category:Ships and Vehicles Category:Terminus